New Delhi: In a shocking revelation, the parliamentary standing committee on defence said that the Indian Air Force is down to just 25 fighter squadrons from a sanctioned strength of 42. This means India may have already lost its strategic edge over Pakistan as far as fighter squadrons are concerned. The committee said the situation was very grim and that national security was being compromised.

The committee said that the IAF requires at least 45 fighter squadrons to counter a two-front threat, but the government has authorised a strength of only 42.
“(On) existing squadron strength, it is learnt we are down to 25 squadrons today, though there is authorisation for 42 combat squadrons. The strength will be reduced to just 11 squadrons by 2024,” it said.

The report also mentioned serious shortages of submarines in the Navy and equipment and weaponry for the Army. The committee also slammed the inadequate allocated funding for the crucial Mountain Strike Corps in the eastern sector and added, in another shocking revelation, that the new corps is being raised with “war wastage reserves”.

The report also slammed the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for not procuring an adequate number of bullet-proof jackets, thus endangering the lives of thousands of soldiers. It also expressed serious concern over crucial proposed defence procurements languishing which could affect national security in a big way.

As per the information submitted by the Ministry, it was found that there are 37 cases of procurement pending at 13 different pre-Contract Negotiation Committee (CNC) stages. According to this information the time taken at each stage is sufficiently more than what is accorded by DPP. Further, it was also found that 27 cases are lying at post CNC stages. This makes a total of 64 cases of pending capital procurements.

The Committee are not happy with such an indolent state of affairs because of the DPP. They are of the opinion that if this trend is allowed to continue, all the important acquisitions will keep languishing resulting in compromising the National security in a big way. In 1999-2000; the defence expenditure was 2.41% of the GDP and it had a continuous slide and since then this financial year, it came down to 1.78% of the GDP. The Committee perceives it to be a grim and unacceptable situation which is affecting all the Services of defence forces considerably,” the report has said.

“With regard to submarines, it was revealed that there are presently 14 conventional submarines (including Sindhurakshak) in the Indian Navy. Most conventional submarines are over 20 years old and are reaching the end of their service life. As far as strength of submarines is concerned, 18 are planned though existing force level is much less and most of them are vintage and old. The Committee are concerned to note that during the last 15 years only one submarine has been inducted (Sindhushastra in July 2000) and five submarines have been deinducted,” the committee has noted.

“The Committee note that Mountain Strike Corps which is needed to counter advances of neighbouring countries at high altitude areas has been sanctioned keeping in view the 15 - year perspective plan. However, the Committee are surprised to note that for raising of this Corps, no separate allocation has been made in this year’s budget. As informed, an amount of Rs. 5000 crore has been earmarked for it but it is not over and above the actual budget allocated and the Army has been asked to raise this Corps out of its own budget.

The Committee also came to know that for raising this corps only war wastage reserves are being utilised. It seems very impractical and incongruous that a new Corps is being raised with war wastage reserves. The Committee feel that the Ministry should do away with its proclivity of ad-hoc planning and provide adequate budgetary support commensurate with the requirement of Mountain Strike Corps,’ the report has said.

On lack of crucial bullet-proof jackets for Army troops, the report said, “The Committee are perturbed over the fact that such an important life saving device (bullet-proof jackets) has not been purchased by the Ministry jeopardising the lives of thousands of soldiers.” “The Committee analysed from the information supplied to them that availability of (battle) tanks is very low and the requirement of tanks is also being filled with the MBT Arjun,” the report said.

The Committee further said that it is “dismayed to learn that DRDO started working on INSAS Rifle way back in 1982 but surprisingly it took 14 years in its development and could able to deliver the Rifle only in 1996. But just after 3 years, the quality of rifle tested in Operation Vijay revealed that product was not up to the mark and many improvements were needed. The Committee find it shocking that even years of expertise has not evolved DRDO to develop a world class basic product like rifle,” the report said.